Thursday, January 24, 2008

Herodian Quarry: To Preserve or Not to Preserve?

The Herodian quarry in Jerusalem (see previous on discovery, location, and photos) is back in the news, as construction of a school begins on part of the site. An archaeologist notes that there's no plan currently to turn part of the area into a tourist site, despite a previous agreement. Some portions of the article:

Seligman said that no "concrete" decision has been taken whether to turn the defined archeological area to a tourist site or to set up a back-covering to protect it, adding that the issue needed to be worked out between the Antiquities Authority and the Jerusalem Municipality....

"We have not been consulted on the issue, and it is unclear whether the archeological site is important enough," said head of the city's tourism division Ekey Bar-Yossef....

The part of the quarry that has been unearthed is likely only 30 to 40 percent of its total size, but archeologists have no plans to excavate the rest of the area because it is private property....